Victoria Falls: Activities

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• Aerial Tours - there's no better way to get a true sense of the immense scale of Victoria Falls than from the air. When the falls are in high flow, this may be the best way to see the falls. There are a couple of popular ways to achieve aerial views of the falls - helicopter and microlight/ultralight. Helicopter rides typically last for 15 minutes and makes several circuits above the falls providing the photographer plenty of opportunities to take decent photos (unless you're the unlucky person in the middle back seat). Unlike helicopter tours in Hawaii or other parts of the world, they don't necessarily seat you based on weight. Microlights and/or Ultralights are basically hang-gliders propelled by engines (sometimes derisively referred to as lawnmower engines though I doubt whether that does it justice). Obviously the latter option is more thrilling and sometimes the pilot can even take photos for you as a camera is fixed to the craft.
• Sunset Cruise - this is not for experiencing the falls, but instead is meant for wildlife viewing as well as for getting plastered with the open bar. In fact, this tour is immensely popular probably because of copious amount of alcohol you can consume, and I'd bet a large percentage of customers are more interested in that than the wildlife; hence this tour's other nickname - the "booze cruise." Still, it's possible to enjoy the wildlife and the sunset in relative piece if you consciously avoid the backpackers looking to impress the opposite sex with their drunkeness. As for wildlife sightings, we were able to spot zebras, impalas, giraffes, and even a crocodile. We didn't see any hippos nor elephants though they're supposed to be common in this section of the Zambezi River.
• Bungee Jumping - this is perhaps one of the crazier ways of seeing Victoria Falls (maybe upside down) as you're launched from the Livingstone Bridge and drop as far down as to be in arms reach of the turbulent Zambezi River. What's more, you can be witnessed by tourists watching from both the Zambia and Zimbabwe sides as well as those who were able to walk onto the bridge and look down. This isn't our type of excursion, but there certainly are adrenaline junkies out there who live for this stuff.
• Abseiling - this is another adrenaline-pumping activity where you abseil down the nearly vertical cliffs of the Batoka Gorge further downstream from Victoria Falls itself. In addition to thrilling you, it lets you experience an otherwise scenic part of the area that not many visitors bother to see.
• Aquatic Tours - I'm making up this category to encompass all boating-related activities below the falls such as rafting, kayaking/canoeing, jet-boating, and riverboarding. All of these activities gets your adrenaline pumping in different ways from motoring right into the whirlpools and rapids in a jet boat to trying to avoid them with whitewater splashing all around you in the non-motorized crafts. This is only doable in water that is high enough but not dangerously flooded (typically July to early August).
• Devil's Swimming Pool - How would you like to be in a swimming pool right at the edge of the falls?!? Indeed those photos floating around the internet of people hanging right at the top of the falls aren't using Photoshop. They're in a natural swimming hole blocked in by a submerged wall right on the brink of the falls; and it's a good thing that wall is there to keep the current from carrying you over the falls (and surely to your death). Some people even manage to lay or sit right on top of that wall for some crazy top-down views of the falls as well as for pictures taken of them to impress their friends. You'll need to catch a ride onto Livingstone Island and be guided to that spot in order to pull this off. The catch to all of this? This excursion is only possible when the falls is at its lowest flow. Otherwise, you wouldn't in your right mind want to even touch the water at any other time of the year!